CDT编辑注：该文来自品葱社区，由网友hkfool所译，原文来自《美国时代周刊｜2020年最具影响力的100个人》
作者：阿曼達·貝內特（AMANDA BENNETT）2020年9月22日，美國東部時間下午9:34
習近平今天是中國看似无法挑战的最高領導人。他的反腐敗運動打擊了贪腐者，其中一些人是他自己的家人，同時還机敏地清除了自己的政治競爭對手。他的威權主義舉動可以與世界上最極端的同类相比较：將維吾爾族囚禁在難民營中，鎮壓香港的激烈的反送中抗議活動，並採用強大的社會监控技術。習近平完成自我造型的方法是允許或鼓勵的類似於毛澤東的個人宗教式崇拜，包括他自己的《小紅書红宝书》。結果是：在世界範圍擴展的外交政策和經濟的巨兽。
儘管如此，正如蘇聯突然倒台暴露出以前看不見的裂縫一樣，習近平可能還没有為自己現在已經是中國的終生領袖感到后悔。勞動力的萎縮和老齡化，全球“一帶一路”倡議的代价（建立在債務之上，而不是現金之上）以及国内的怨气，或是更糟糕的，来于經濟增長放緩的受害者因冠狀病毒在他眼皮底下的大流行而加劇，這意味著習的所谓成功可能不是他的最终表演。
貝內特（Bennett）是普利策獎獲獎記者和作家
— 正因为是获奖的名作者写的，再加上本人中文弱鸡，原文虽然短，却真是有点难于翻译。（如果高手指出错译之处，我看见就会改译文。）英文原文在这里。
Xi Jinping stands today as China’s seemingly invulnerable top leader. His anti-corruption campaign struck at kleptocrats, some in his own family, while also conveniently purging rivals. His authoritarian moves rival the world’s most extreme: corralling ethnic Uighurs into camps, suppressing violent anti-China protests in Hong Kong and ushering in powerful social-monitoring technology. Completing the look is the Mao Zedong–like cult of personality Xi allows or encourages—including his own Little Red Book. The result: a foreign policy and economic juggernaut expanding around the world.
Still, just as the sudden fall of the Soviet Union exposed previously unseen cracks, Xi may yet come to regret that he is now effectively China’s leader for life. A shrinking and aging workforce, the cost of the global Belt and Road Initiative (built on debt, not cash) and internal griping—or worse—from victims of a slowing economy exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that began on his watch mean Xi’s success may not be his final act.
Bennett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author
